Youth Voices (1st Generation)

The Youth Voices of Turkey

“One Word One Identity” Commitment

The "Youth Voices" is a global program that has been initiated by the World Bank to establish a sounder communication with the youth. The first application in the world had been initiated in Lima, Peru, and as a result of the affirmative outcomes, it had been supported and promoted by the World Bank in order for the program to expand to other developing countries as well. Turkey is one of the countries where the implementation of this program has been initiated, in addition to some other countries around it. 24 young people who were elected among applicants in March 2003, and who undertook active roles in various non-profit organisations have become the members of the Youth Voices of Turkey. These people who are from different cities of Turkey with different life experiences have accepted to appear in this platform in order to convey their opinions about the problems of the country, to exchange their visions on the future, and to generate their own and undertaken the required responsibility to make all necessary contributions.

Turkey is a developing country with its young population, and the present population is a very important source of wealth in order for Turkey to actualise its development objectives. In order for the modernisation and development objectives of Turkey to be actualised, the dynamism of its youth has to be made best use of. In the global world, the youth to determine its own needs and to shape its future, and thus to contribute more to the development of the country is only possible by participating more in the decision mechanisms. At this point, the youth wants to determine its own requirements as required by the times, and to have an active role in shaping the future of the country with its own value systems, visions and ideas. However, currently the Turkish youth does not display a very successful graphic as far as participation is concerned. Currently, the Turkish youth is far from active participation in all kinds of management and decision-making mechanisms. This is due to some basic shortcomings of the youth (education, employment, etc.) in addition to the distant approach of those governing the country to the youth.

World Bank has created the Youth Voices program as a response in order for the youth to establish the possible problems that might pose a barrier for them exist in the decision mechanisms, and for them to generate their own recommendations for solutions. Therefore, the Youth Voices Group is a group that is aware of these facts and considers the facilitating role of the World Bank as an opportunity, to identify the questions that the youth in Turkey is subject to, to make concrete recommendations for solutions, to contribute to the creation of a youth policy in Turkey and to ensure that the young people can actively participate in all kinds of decision making mechanisms. In order to attain these targets, the Youth Voices Group have identified their objectives in the following order of priority.

The objectives of the Youth Voices Group, which is aware of all these facts, are as follows:

• In order to ensure that a consistent and a sustainable youth policy can be created in Turkey, to attract the attention of the government, local administrations, non-profit organisations, youth organisations, etc. and to make the necessary contribution throughout this period,
• To divert the attention of the central and the local management to the problems of the youth and to support the parties with recommendations when solving problems,
• To encourage the Turkish youth in order for them to be included in the decision making policies.

In order to attain these targets, the Youth Voices Group have identified their objectives in the following order of priority.

• Considering the general and the local problems of the Turkish youth and the regional and cultural differences, identifying them and to recommend concrete and permanent solutions to these problems in line with the requests and tendencies of these young individuals,
• To convey the problems of the youth to the mechanisms that can recommend solutions and to encourage these mechanisms for attending these matters,
• To make best use of the means offered by the World Bank, as the Youth Voices of Turkey Group, in order to identify the problems of the youth and to establish their priorities,
• To contribute to making the voice of Turkish youth heard within the local and the global platform,
• To contribute to the studies of groups such as non-profit organisations, international establishments, etc., that deal with the problems of the young people.

The members of the Youth Voices Group have identified a working program in line with the established targets and objectives:

• To receive the training courses required by the group and given by the World Bank, in order to attain final objectives,
• To make field researches and hold meetings with the relevant parties throughout the country and on a local basis,
• To make studies within the co-management, education, employment, and rural development sub-groups in order to identify the major problems of the youth in Turkey and to reveal the outcomes with reports,
• To combine the outcomes of the sub-group reports, and to prepare three reports at the end of the program, to present to the relevant parties.

The reports of the results will be presented to the Turkish Government, the World Bank and the youth of Turkey, in the given order.

All these are justifications and the commitment of our effort to create "One Word One Identity" as the Youth Voices of Turkey, with our values of mutual understanding and cooperation, respect in differences, honesty, belonging, team spirit and succeeding together.

Please also visit http://youthink.worldbank.org/ to learn more about youth related activities in the World Bank.